Front Row Dress Circle

Sorry for placing this right after a post about suicide but we cannot let this tribute go undone.

Charlton Heston has died at the age of eighty-four after living with Alzheimers Disease for several years. What can you say about this guy? a man who played three US Presidents, three Saints, Moses and even God should have had an ego the size of Yankee Stadium and yet he was the most modest of men - down to earth and practical.

There are so many Heston moments that it is almost impossible to recount them all: parting the Red Sea in The Ten Commandments, as Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel in The Agony and the Ecstasy, discovering the ruined statue of Liberty in Planet of the Apes, and of course that unforgettable chariot race in Ben Hur for which he won an Academy Award.

But apart from his onscreen achievements he was a man with a conscience and a man of principles. In an industry where loyalty is only skin deep, where people say something to one person and the opposite to someone else Charlton Heston had principles which won him great respect, but also his share of condemnation. He stood for justice, he stood for the American Way - he stood for the common man and his rights. He also stood for the citizen’s right to gun ownership, an issue which divided his fans but one nevertheless that he felt stongly about.

A face which which was carved from granite and a physique which could have been drawn by Michelangelo himself, Charlton Heston was a sportsman who maintained his fitness throughout his life.

In 1944 he married Lydia, a model, and their marriage was one of Hollywood’s strongest lasting 64 years until his death.

In 2002 he was diagnosed with Alzheimers and in 2003 he completed his very last screen work as the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in My Father, Rua Alguem 5555. After he made this film he retired from acting and public life. He was a loyal friend to those he loved and after being diagnosed with the illness he contacted many of them; the British actress Stephanie Beacham, his co-star in The Colby’s, told how he called her to tell her he loved her “while I can still remember you”.

He died at his home in Beverly Hill’s California on Saturday April 5th with, of course, Lydia by his side.

Charlton, we will never forget you. Vale.

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